July 16th, 2020 Repentance II

As noted last week, repentance

involves both the desire for

repentance and actual repentance.

The desire for repentance is

connected most closely to the

notion of experiencing sorrow

over our sin, and wishing things could be different. Actual repentance is the act

of making a change in one’s life. It is changing from one way of living to a new

or different way of living. As this discussion relates to Christian faith, repentance

is turning from our old way to the Way of Christ.

It is tempting to think of repentance as an act of the will. That is, “I will decide to do this new thing in my life,”

and then set about making it happen. An example of such thinking could follow along these lines: A person

comes to the realization that his life is a mess. His marriage is in trouble. He drinks too much. Furthermore, he

is not a good father. The plan, he thinks, is to get himself and his family back in church; he will decide to live

right! This is noble, but it is as likely to fail as succeed. He may go to church for a while. Then he may lose

interest, and little by little drift back to where he started.

He may blame his lack of interest in church on the preacher, or on the congregation. The excuses vary widely.

The preacher is boring, not on fire enough, on fire too much, or so on. The congregation is not active enough,

too active, not friendly, too meddlesome, and on this list goes. Actually, the man loses interest because actual

repentance never took place. Repentance is not something we make happen through our will; it is something

we allow God to do by surrendering our will.

You see, the power to change me does not reside within me! The power to change me resides only with

God! Therefore, if real change is to take place in my life, I must give my will over to God. The Holy Spirit at

work in a person’s heart brings about real and lasting change. You and I can make changes in our life for a time,

but we run out of interest or energy after a while. When this happens, life goes back to the way it was. However,

the Holy Spirit does not lose interest, or energy.

Next week I will talk more about surrender to God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the joy of real change.

-God bless! Pastor Rick

Please note: We will continue to send out a weekly newsletter through the month of July.

Church Office Hours

Throughout the month of July, the church

office will be open Monday through Thursday

from 8am-4pm, and closed on Fridays.

As always, you may reach us by phone or email:

Church Office: 931-455-5434

fumc@lighttube.net

Finance Office: 931-455-7127

financefumc@lighttube.net

The ministry staff continues to always be

available for any pastoral needs that may arise.

Daily Devotionals

Join us on Facebook each evening at

6:30pm for a short video devotional.

Holy Communion on Thursdays

Each Thursday, Pastor Rickey will be

leading Communion on Facebook

Live at 6:30pm. Additionally, we

will have limited (6-10) in-person participation.

If you like to attend one of these in-person Com-

munion Services, please contact the church office.

Our youth ministry will hold a special Worship &

Prayer Night for the new school year next Wednesday,

July 22nd at 7pm. We will meet in the Family Activity

Center where there will be a created sacred space to

have our service. Music will be led by Jeff Harrison

with students and parents leading in prayers and reflections. Pastor

Rickey will offer communion. Masks are strongly encouraged for the

duration of the service together. We invite anyone that believes in the

power of prayer to join us as we pray for the new school year!

All youth are invited to continue joining us on Sunday evenings for our Zoom Live Hangouts at 5pm!

“Let's not have any quarreling between you

and me …for we are close relatives.”

Genesis 13:8

Being united doesn't always mean doing

everything together. Abraham must have

realized this truth when he suggested that he and Lot go their separate ways in

Bethel when it became apparent that there was not enough space for both flocks.

Being made uniquely by God, we may find that we sometimes work better

separately to achieve the same goal. There's a unity in diversity. May we

never forget, however, that we're still brothers and sisters in the family of God.

We may do things differently but we remain united in purpose. -Leslie Koh

With school starting soon, we are looking for

ways to engage in person with you and I would

love to hear your thoughts on this.

The nursery will open this Sun-

day, July 19th, for the 6pm service,

reservations are required. See our Children’s

Facebook page for a video with more info.

I will continue to keep in touch with you thru our Children’s

Facebook page: Children’s Ministry of FUMC Tullahoma

and by Text in Church (text CHILDREN to 931-452-4747).

Be on the lookout for ways to connect, ways to spiritually

engage your children, and some fun activities.

-Working with and MISSING you, Julie

Happy Birthday to:

Charlotte Hatheway, 21st

Fuffy Bearden, 22nd

Frank Steinle, 25th

Larry Warwick, 26th

I am still waiting for you

to let me know how the

Senior Adult Ministry can

be of service to you over

the next few months. I can

suggest several things, I

would rather hear from

you. Remember all ideas

will be considered.

You can reach us on Facebook:

FUMC Tullahoma

FUMC Tullahoma

Youth Ministries

Children’s Ministry

of FUMC Tullahoma

Online Giving At FUMC there are many ways to give:

Electronic: go to www.fumctullahoma.com,

and click the online giving link.

Bank drafts & automatic payments can be

set up with the finance office.

Text: to use your phone to give, simply text

Give2fumc to 732-56 and follow the prompts.

For more information, please contact Katrina

Walton in the Finance Office. Thank you for giving!

To receive messages from the church to keep you

in the loop about everything that is going on, just

text the word church to 931-452-4747 and click on

the response. You may also signup to receive texts

from specific areas of ministry. For our Youth

Ministry, text youth; for our Children’s Ministry,

text children; for our Senior Adults ministry, text

fumcsam. Once your form is filled out, we will

begin sending you all the info you'll need.

Henry Center The Food Pantry and Financial

Assistance portions of the Henry

Center continue to serve the

community Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12-2pm.

They are currently needing more plastic bags. If you

can, please double bag them and bring them to the

church. Containers are located outside the Lauderdale

Street door of the main building and the gym doors of

the Family Activity Center. The Clothes Closet will

not be open during this time.

If you would like to volunteer, please contact

Jeff Harrison at 931-434-2373.

At this time, the Clothes Closet is unable to take

donations. As soon as we are able to take in more

items, we will let everyone know. Thank you for

your faithful support to the Henry Center.

Dossett Chapel On Wednesdays, we are continuing to hand out treat

bags with non-perishable items, plus other goodies.

The kids love to hang out and just talk to us, telling

us what they’re doing, what they’re worried about, etc.

If anyone is interested in using their gifts

in this area of ministry, please contact

Jeff Ellison at 512-217-9844

If you are not on

Facebook and would

like some help setting

up a page, we would

be happy to assist you

with that. You may

contact Jeff Harrison

at 931-434-2373 or

Kris Roberts at

931-581-2310

Keeping In Prayers

Dwight Miller

Our Friends in Guatemala

Glen Braghetta

Bobbie Ray

Katie Jo Bailey (family

friend of the Browns)

Carter Ray (great-grandson

of Bobbie & Billy Ray)

Mary Alice Hollinshead

We are now on Thunder Radio 107.9

FM and 1320 AM at noon, every Sunday.

Lou Ann Mitchell

Kim Roepke

Dan Stone

Nancy Wright

Ruby Hobbs

Carl Corley (nephew

of Steve Hoagland)

Inia Cruise

Mary Lou Barnett

Tommie Hoagland in the passing of her aunt,

Mrs. Jobie Corn. Mrs. Corn passed away July 12th.

Steve Hoagland in the passing of his brother-in-law,

Ray Meeks. Mr. Meeks passed away July 14th.

Trustees Update The south Jackson Street doors are completed and work will begin soon on matching the north doors to the south

doors.. Three doors from the narthax to the sanctuary are finished. They have crash bars which will enable us to

“lock down” the front entry during services and events. In the Family Activity Center, we are addressing issues

with the garbage disposal, the fan motor for the exhaust hood, and the large freezer in the gym storage area.